Who can drop a criminal charge? 80 Answers as of August 26, 2012

Is it the district attorney or the alleged victim? Like if the alleged victim wanted to drop the charges, is the decision made solely by the district attorney and his belief that a crime was probably committed? Can it be dropped if the alleged victim wants to?

Once a case has been filed it is up to the prosecutor to continue the case or dismiss. The alleged victim has input and can contact the prosecutor regarding their opinion but the prosecutor has the final say.

Only the District Attorney can drop a charge or make a decision not to prosecute. If the alleged victim is reluctant to cooperate with the D.A. or testify at a trial, that might make the D.A.'s job more difficult. But, he is under no obligation to drop charges just because the alleged victim wants him to.

Outside of domestic violence cases, the DA will usually drop a charge if the victim indicates that they do not want to go forward. That said, the DA does have to drop the charge for it to get dismissed.

The ultimate decision to proceed with a charge or to dismiss it lies with the prosecutor. If the only evidence the prosecutor has is the complainant's testimony, then if the complainant will not cooperate, the prosecutor may be forced to dismiss the charge. Of course the prosecutor can compel the complainant to appear in court to testify via subpoena power. Finally, certain offenses allow the prosecutor to proceed even if the complainant does not wish to. Domestic violence is one such offense.

Many women have their husband or boyfriend arrested and then want to "drop the charges".

The prosecutor will make the decision of whether to dismiss the case, reduce it, offer a plea, or request a jail term. The victim can give their input and it may make a difference, but if it is a serious matter they may ignore the victim's request.

You should retain a good criminal lawyer and have him present the victim's opinion to the prosecutor or the victim can get into trouble if they change their story or refuse to cooperate.

ONLY the District Attorney (actually the Assistant District Attorney, or ADA) who can drop charges. Once the defendant is charged, it is the Commonwealth v. Defendant, not Victim v. Defendant.

The ADA represents not only the victim, who has a personal interest in the outcome, but the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a whole, that has a community interest in keeping criminals off the street or making sure they are punished.

This is the underlying theory and reason why a victim cannot dictate the dropping of charges such as Assault & Battery. However, that does not mean that if handled properly, a victim cannot greatly influence both the prosecution or the dismissal of the charges.

The ADA will typically NOT dismiss just because the victim changes his or her mind, or even if the victim never wanted charges brought to begin with. Once the police are called, it is essentially out of the hands of the victim.

If the police hear the elements of a charge, they have a mandate to bring that charge. Once the ADA gets the charge, it is their job to prosecute those charges. A good defense lawyer should be able to navigate through the Constitutional rights that all parties have to get the charges dropped, but it is not simple and not likely to happen without an attorney.

Sometimes the victim wants to drop a charge, but if there was a crime committed, the district attorney may want to prosecute it anyhow.

This is often true with domestic violence, especially if there was significant harm to the victim, who may either be afraid to press the charges or somehow believes that the other party " has found true love " and will not assault again.

Only the district attorney can drop a criminal charge. Though a district attorney may be influenced by the victim's choice to not wish to pursue the charge, the district attorney has complete control of the action.

The district attorney is the sole decision-maker on whether to pursue criminal charges against a defendant. Along those same lines, it is completely up to the individual prosecutor (or their office) whether to take an alleged victim's desires into account or not when making the decision to pursue, charge, or dismiss any case.

The crime victim has no power to drop a case. A crime victim pretty much makes their charging decision the moment they pick up the phone to call the police. After that, the matter is out of their hands. In Missouri, it is the prosecuting attorney who has the power to prosecute charges or to dismiss them. Most prosecutors will listen to what the victim has to say about a case, but the victim has no power or control over whether the case is dismissed or not.

In our criminal justice system, any crime is deemed to be an offense against society. As a result, the government has control of the case.

The victim is considered a witness. Once a criminal complaint has been filed, it is solely the province of the office of the prosecutor to determine whether or not to go forward with charges.

The victim's sole recourse is to recant testimony or refuse to testify. Depending on the amount of evidence the prosecutor has gathered, it may or may not make a difference. In many cases an uncooperative victim-witness will cause the case to be dropped, but it is tricky.

It can bolster the prosecution's case if it appears the victim-witness has been intimidated. Any decision by a victim-witness to be uncooperative made for the benefit of the accused (and not due to a personal desire not to testify in court) should involve the accused's defense counsel.

Only the prosecuting attorney can decide to drop a criminal charge. They will often respect an alleged victim's wishes and requests to drop a charge, but not always.

If the alleged victim refuses to appear and offer testimony, sometimes the prosecutor will have no option but to dismiss the case.

This can have adverse consequences for the alleged victim, if they are subject to a subpoena.

One exception to this is when the alleged victim is the spouse of the defendant. In that case, the alleged victim can invoke the spousal privilege, which is an absolute protection from one spouse being compelled to testify against the other.

The victim can give input, but the final decision on whether our not to proceed is up to the prosecutor. It usually helps when the victim is cooperative. The prosecutor then doesn't feel bad about giving the accused a break. However, the accused would still be wise to hire a good defense attorney!

All prosecutions are made in the name of the State of Indiana, and only the State of Indiana, through its prosecutors, determine whether charges will be dismissed before trial. As a practical matter, an uncooperative complaining witness (or alleged victim) will usually doom a prosecution to failure.

Only the district attorney can drop a charge. However, if the victim wants to drop the charge, the district attorney will take that into consideration and may drop the charge if there are no other witnesses available to testify if the case goes to trial or the case is otherwise weakened.

For example, if it is a domestic violence assault and battery and the only witness to your actions was the victim, and then the victim decides that he/she wants to drop the charge and stops cooperating with the district attorney, then the prosecutor will have a problem proving the case and may have no other choice but to drop the charge.

In cases other than domestic violence, if the complaining witness refuses to cooperate, the DA will usually drop the charges. However, in domestic violence cases, many DAs have a "no drop" policy, meaning that they will pursue the charges and subpoena the complaining witness to testify whether he or she wants to or not.

Failure to appear and testify may result in a warrant for the complaining witness's arrest. If the witness appears and states that the statements she made in obtaining a warrant were false, then the court or DA can and probably will file perjury charges against the witness.

In NH, there are police prosecutors, County Attorney's Offices for each county and the Attorney General's Office - a "district attorney" does not exist. That being said, a victim cannot "drop" a criminal charge. Only the State as the prosecuting authority controls prosecution, never another person. A victim has the right to input pursuant to NH law but cannot control prosecution.

The prosecuting attorney is the one who decides whether charges are to be issued or not. The victim may wish to drop charges and file an "affidavit of non-prosecution" with the office of the prosecuting attorney - but ultimately it's the prosecutor's decision.

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